Posted on 04/19/2008 4:59:45 PM PDT by Aristotelian
It was the story with everything – sex, power, spies and the extraordinary claim that President Putin intended to marry a beautiful Olympic gymnast half his age.
So alluring was the idea of romance between Mr Putin and Alina Kabaeva that publications all over Europe rushed to reprint a little-known Moscow newspaper’s report that the former KGB officer had divorced his wife Lyudmila secretly and would marry his lover on June 15.
Yesterday, however, Moscow Korrespondent admitted that the story had “no factual basis” after Aleksandr Lebedev, the billionaire owner of the newspaper, challenged staff to back up the claims or apologise.
Mr Putin, 55, reacted icily when questioned about the rumours during a visit yesterday to Silvio Berlusconi, the incoming Italian Prime Minister, in Sardinia. He told journalists: “In what you said, there is not one word of truth. I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.”
He noted that the lives of politicians were rightly visible to all but added: “There are limits and I have a private life in which I do not permit interference. It must be respected.”
Recovering his good humour, Mr Putin added, with a smile, that there was “a lot of talk in the press about beautiful young women. I don’t think it will surprise you if I said that I like them all.”
The Times has learnt that the tale has taken a darker twist. Staff at Moscow Korrespondent said that officers from the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, had visited the newspaper twice since the story broke this week to interrogate its editor about its sources.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
She’s not a very attractive “babe”.
[Putin] told journalists: “In what you said, there is not one word of truth. I have always reacted negatively to those who with their snotty noses and erotic fantasies prowl into others’ lives.”
A Polonium-210 moment, for sure...
It is amazing what she can do with her body in gymnastics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mam9dYyXv6s
Old Olympic tapes.
Mayhap by Russian standards she is? What does Putin’s wife look like? Putin ain’t no Earl Flynn after all … any port in a storm and all that. ;-)
There she looks pretty. It must have been the angle of the shot.
“Jerry, you stand on the threshold to the magical world of sensual delights that most men dare not dream of.”
“Boy, you can really talk some trash. I guess that’s better than eating it.”
- Kramer and Jerry, in “The Gymnast”
I don't know how she can get her body to do that!
Jesus - Putin and I are the same age ! And as they say , there is no aphrodisiac like youth ( Over 18 that is ! ) !
Thanks. Didn’t know he was divorced. ;-)
The drunk State Dept folks told me she was "difficult" and that when Putin was younger he was forced to live with her parents in their Moscow apartment.
Wow.
From when Wendy's was ... creative WENDY'S. View the commercial video here:
prisoner6
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